AI for Manager Development and Efficiency: Reinventing the Manager's Role for High-Value Leadership
Humancore Team
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April 30, 2025
In today's rapidly evolving workplace, AI for manager development is transforming how organizations equip their supervisors with essential skills and competencies. As managers face unprecedented challenges, this innovative approach to their development provides personalized, in-the-moment support that traditional programs cannot. By leveraging AI, companies can enhance their managers’ capabilities in directing the functions of their teams with unprecedented effectiveness.
According to recent Deloitte research, nearly 40% of managers' time is consumed by firefighting problems or administrative work, leaving little room for strategic leadership. This crisis in management effectiveness isn't just a problem for managers themselves—it reverberates throughout organizations. The consequences are significant: employees working under ineffective managers are 15 times more likely to be low performers, 13% less engaged, and three times more likely to leave their organizations.
At the same time, companies with strong management report up to 15% higher financial performance than those with weaker management. The solution isn't eliminating managers—it's reinventing their role with the help of artificial intelligence.
The scope of managerial responsibilities has expanded dramatically in recent years. As organizations have reduced managerial headcount in pursuit of efficiency, the span of control and list of accountabilities for remaining managers have grown proportionally. According to a 2025 study from meQuilibrium, managers are 59% more likely than individual contributors to report their work as emotionally demanding, are 37% more likely to report insufficient time for tasks, and are 34% more likely to report needing to work at a very fast pace.
This increased pressure comes at a time when 40% of managers report their mental health declined after taking on a leadership role.
AI can help reinvent the managerial role by supporting managers in the growth of three critical capabilities that deliver the greatest value:
Effective people management is perhaps the most important function of management. Deloitte research shows that effectively developing direct reports can boost their performance by as much as 27% and make them 1.5 times more likely to exceed their goals. Moreover, 67% of employees say their manager knows best what motivates them.
AI can support managers in becoming better coaches by providing real-time performance insights and guidance. Rooted in team- and company-specific context, this guidance helps managers improve their abilities to motivate their particular teams. As Christy Pambianchi, Intel's chief people officer, explains: "Having a built-in [AI] coach for the manager can help give them insights about the team they're managing and the activities they've taken on."
She emphasizes that AI complements, rather than replaces the human element: "Empathy, support, connectivity, psychological safety, commitment to the enterprise—those are all things that I think only a manager and leader can help create."
With global use of generative AI jumping from 55% in 2023 to 75% in 2024, and more than eight in ten workers now interacting with AI at work, managers must take on a new role of guiding their teams to develop new processes and helping them collaborate effectively in the new world of work.
With in-the-moment guidance from AI designed for manager development, today’s managers can rapidly improve their teams’ processes and functions, even as the technological landscape shifts under their feet. This purpose-built AI can help managers more critically understand their teams’ evolving roles, and get real-time feedback that helps them direct their teams to operate more effectively.
Managers are uniquely positioned—close enough to the work but with sufficient perspective—to help guide the way individual employees work, how their employees work with each other, and how they leverage technology to become more effective.
Managers need to continuously develop their abilities to monitor and adjust team performance to achieve objectives.
AI can help managers develop their competencies in:
Receiving research-backed guidance that takes manager, team, and employee traits and objectives into account helps managers become more effective drivers of team performance.
Traditional manager development approaches—training workshops, Learning Management Systems, and even coaching—have fallen short in supporting managers’ core competency development. Not only do managers have next to no time to spare for their own development, these approaches are also removed from day-to-day management situations and don't provide in-the-moment support.
AI for manager development takes a fundamentally different approach, providing:
For most organizations, the answer isn't eliminating managers or maintaining the status quo—it's finding a third path: committing to comprehensive, continuous manager development with AI as the enabler. By focusing on building the right competencies, providing evidence-based feedback and direction, and aligning guidance with the realities of individual teams and their leaders, AI can transform managers from a point of organizational vulnerability to a source of operational excellence.
Ready to transform how your managers perform and grow? Humancore has created the first AI-powered advisor for managers. To learn more about how an AI-powered advisor can transform your organization's approach to manager development, contact us today at info .
